Apologies for being late to this thread, we’ve been at CanJam London this weekend so it has been a busy one!
Yes, that is correct. We use high quality crystals in all our products, and the crystals in the Vivaldi One (or any Vivaldi product) are not lesser than those in the Vivaldi Clock. However, as has been written elsewhere, the absence of any DAC, CD mech, networking etc. means that those crystals inside the Clock have less impacting them and can naturally run more accurately.
It is correct to say that for optimum operation, the DAC needs to have a high quality clock circuit inside the same unit, optimised so that clock signal reaches the DAC circuit cleanly. This is still the case with a dCS DAC even when it locks to an external Master Clock - the DAC clock then slaves to the external clock as opposed to synchronising to the timing information in the audio signal (which has its own problems).
We do this synchronisation by way of a very capable Phase Locked Loop. It is a bespoke dCS design, using our own hardware and software, that lets us get the best performance out of any source, or clock input. Every step in the clocking chain is important for audio playback, and this extends beyond just internal clock performance. The PLL inside each product in the chain needs to be of top quality, and each needs to be kept synchronised. Using a Master Clock to do this avoids effects like intersymbol interference which can induce jitter into the signal.
We’ve been using Master Clocks in audio systems, both consumer and professional, for decades. I think it is fair to say that if we had found a better way of clocking audio in that time, we definitely would have taken it! 